The development of a forensic clinical psychology service in a community mental health team

Abstract

This study provides detailed psychometric data on the patients in the care of a community forensic team in south-east London. Out of 59 patients referred to the psychology service, 39 (66%) attended at least one appointment. Overall, about 42% of all psychology appointments offered were not attended. The great majority (93%) of the patients were male, typically with a history of major mental illness and an index offence of either violence or sexual assault. The results from the psychometric testing confirmed that most of the patients have serious mental illness problems, which are often combined with marked antisocial personality traits, criminality proneness, and low self-esteem. Taken together, these findings suggest that many of the patients have a variety of complex psychiatric and psychological problems, which require intense intervention by a specialist team.

Keywords:

• Community forensic team
• parallel service model
• integrated service model
• criminogenic need
• risk factors